Dear Mexico,

I am writing to express my sincerest regret concerning the run-in that you had with a bully today. You should know that although he acts big, and he is the leader of my country, his views do not reflect my own views. I don’t personally know anyone who wants to pay $14 billion in taxes for a 1,900-mile wall on the border between us and believes that we should be reimbursed by you. If we had a say in how our tax revenue is spent, most of us would put it toward something other than a wall. I don’t think his views, in general, reflect what the majority of my fellow citizens think. His thoughts align with that of some Americans, but he is not our President because he represents the views of all of us. I don’t think he has any intention of considering my views while he is my leader. Despite his apparent resistance to working on behalf of all Americans, he is our President because of a perfect storm of negative events that descended on our country and landed him in the Oval Office. He is a product of negativity, but not all of us in the United States are focused on the negative aspect of life. We are not all focused on money and power, as his actions might indicate to outside observers. Maybe he says and does mean things to other people and countries and focuses on money because his dad didn’t hug him enough when he was growing up, or maybe he was just born that way. I’m not sure why he is the way he is, but I do know that many of us here in my country are just as afraid of him as you are. I may even need to seek asylum in your country after sharing this open letter if his administration succeeds in revoking First Amendment rights.

Donald Trump has been successful at getting United States congressmen, who were once considered respectable, to support some of his odd ideas – most likely because of their personal career ambitions. I am the first to admit that we do have a lot of awful, selfish politicians in this country who act only in their own best interest. That’s part of the storm that helped get him elected: he has zero political experience and that appealed to some people. But, there are an overwhelming number of us who care about the experience of our fellow human beings as much as we care about ourselves and our country. Many of us are concerned about how much damage will be done to our relationship with you. Reasonable citizens want to work with you to come up with solutions concerning immigration. Most of us prefer to dialogue our way toward solutions instead of simply putting up walls.

Even though my leader’s voice may seem loud and powerful right now, many of my fellow citizens are banding together to make the call for human decency even louder than the negative rhetoric you’ve been hearing from my country. I’ve been so concerned by the words coming from the bully’s pulpit and from some of his cruel supporters that I felt I had to start a humanitarian organization to allow my own voice to be heard. It’s called MELT – M.ake E.very L.ife T.hrive. I felt I needed to start doing something to address the hatred and fear I have been seeing in my country. Many of us in the United States have initiated a variety of humanitarian and political efforts to reclaim our country from the bullies. It’s our hope that you also stop getting bullied by our leader.

I feel that this is the first of many apologies I will be writing to various countries over the next four years. So please realize, it’s not you; it’s him. My hope is that, during the next four years of a Trump administration, human decency prevails in the United States and there will not be a wall between us – literal or figurative.

Best Regards,

Julie

P.S. Here’s a little cartoon that my ten year-old nephew and I made for you. The proposed wall between us is one of his top social concerns. He doesn’t want us to be torn apart from you. He wants people in the U.S. to stand up for you. He’s in the 5th grade and he understands more about international relations than my President does.

© 2017 by Julie Ryan. All rights reserved
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